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US Serviceman In Iraq Infuriates Muslims By Using Quran For Target Practice

By Howard M. Friedman

CNN reports today on the furor that has been created by a U.S. staff sergeant in Iraq who earlier this month used a Quran for target practice at an Iraqi police station. Last Saturday, the U.S. commander of forces in Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, appeared at a formal apology ceremony. Not only did he speak, but part of a letter of apology from the staff sergeant was read and another military official kissed a Quran and presented to tribal leaders at the ceremony. The offending serviceman, a leader of a sniper unit, has been relieved of duty in Iraq, reprimanded and redeployed back to the United States. However the Iraqi Islamic Party says this is not enough. Sheikh Hamadi al-Qirtani called the shooting "aggression against the entire Islamic world."

Full post as published by Religion Clause on May 19, 2008 (boomark / email).